Software Details

The Rogers Family Trading Room offers a variety of financial software that can be useful in many types of research and analysis. Any Penn State student or faculty member is welcome to use the software. There are several ways to learn how to use the software including attending the classes offered in the Trading Room taught by trading interns or consultants from the software vendors, using the online tutorials available in the software programs (e.g., Bloomberg University), and getting help from one of the Trading Room interns.

FactSet enables users to view current and historical data related to the financial markets. FactSet provides extensive information about specific companies as well as the ability to do complex portfolio analytics. It is considered to be extremely user-friendly and allows users to easily export data into Excel. FactSet is available on more than 40 computers in the trading room.

Morningstar Direct provides access to a database of mutual funds and hedge funds. Users can analyze a fund’s performance, management, and holdings as well as estimates of asset flows. Mornigstar Direct also offers portfolio analytics and tools for researching the fundamentals and ownership of individual companies. Both historical and current data are available. Data can be downloaded into Excel. Morningstar is available on all the computers in the trading room.

Rotman Interactive Trader (RIT), is a market simulation system developed by the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto. Using RIT, markets can be created within the trading room that allow students to trade against each other or against and an automated system. Trading cases using RIT generally require students to make pricing and trading decisions based on their analysis of data provided in the case and market. The cases can be tailored to teach specific concepts, valuation models, or strategies. Some of the cases that have been developed focus on merger arbitrage, index trading, discounted cash flow valuation models, and option pricing and hedging. The Rotman Interactive Trader is used in the Rotman International Trading Competition which Penn State students participate in each year.

TradeStation Pro is a direct-access trading platform. It provides quick and easy access to real-time NASDAQ level 2 quotes and specialists' posted prices. Charting is quickly performed, and adding technical analysis to a graph takes only seconds. TradeStation Pro provides users with powerful tools to develop, optimize, and back test trading strategies using more than 15 years of historical intra-day data. It also allows data exportation into Excel.